Shs770m injected into six police health centres
A section of Masaka Police health centre, which is being rehabilitated under the Shs770m Usaid-funded project. PHOTO by Martins E Ssekweyama.
What you need to know:
Uplift standards. The money seeks to uplift the standard of police health centres in Masaka, Mbale, Jinja, Arua, Gulu and Naguru.
Masaka.
The United States Agency for International Development (Usaid), has injected Shs770m into rehabilitation of six police health centres across the country.
The health centres scheduled for rehabilitation are located in Masaka, Mbale, Jinja, Arua, Gulu and Naguru.
While commissioning the rehabilitation in Masaka on Tuesday, Mr Mark Meassick, the Usaid deputy mission director in Uganda, said the intervention seeks to improve health care among police officers and their families.
The rehabilitation also seeks to contribute to the improvement of the life of about 1.2 million people, part of whom are police officers, living with HIV/Aids in Uganda.
According to Mr Meassick, even with a number of several interventions, HIV prevalence among police officers remains high at 11.5 per cent against the national figure of 7.3 per cent.
Mr Edward Mugweri, the southern region police boss, said this was a big step towards improving health care in the force.
Many of these health centres, according to Mr Mugweri, not only provide treatment for police officers or their family members but also give treatment to neighbouring communities.
Residents in Masaka who attended the function welcomed the moved but urged Usaid to ensure improvement of maternity health care at the facility.
Mr John Muwonge, the clinical officer in charge of the health centre, said the donation would ease pressure on the facility that serves a number of patients including those from Kimanya and Kyabakuza.
The Masaka District Health Officer, Dr Stuart Musisi, said he would ensure the money is used to buy machines and recruiting more staff to attend to patients.
